Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage Quotes

“I read somewhere there’s a list of things that you do, and one of them is that you attack the attacker. He can’t shoot everybody. Everybody’s afraid to do anything, so everybody gets shot.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“The problem is that we have been encouraged to be victims rather than to defend ourselves. “We’ve moved towards an idea where the government does everything. It’s a police-state mentality, that’s all it is. It’s very dangerous.” He said we are heading down a slippery slope. Most of his teachers share his philosophy or they leave. If there is an active-killer incident at the school where the gunman is shot and killed, the media ask Thweatt: “What about those children who saw someone gunned down? You’re going to traumatize them for life?” He replies: “They’re going to be less traumatized than being gunned down themselves.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“In, say, the year 1950, only firefighters seemed wise enough to have fire extinguishers in their homes. If you went to the family physician and asked him to teach you closed chest cardiac massage, as cardiopulmonary resuscitation was called then, he would have looked at you as if you were nuts and told you to go to medical school if you wanted to learn that stuff. And if you had asked your local police chief about deadly force against criminals, he might have told you to go to the police academy and become a cop, because that was their province. Today, things have changed.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“The biggest problem with gun-free zones is that they aren’t free of guns. They are the places of choice for killers and terrorists to rack up their totals of killed and wounded in places like Columbine, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, and the Charleston AME Church. They are killing zones.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“More than ever, we ordinary civilians are the foot soldiers in the war on terrorism.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. And even if your state allows open carry, keep your gun concealed. If you wear it openly, it is like having a target on your back; you will be the first to be shot.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“A gun-free zone is not even a consideration; all it does is it restricts law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t do a darn thing for the criminal element.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“I would want it to be learned that basically to do something. Hiding or sitting back is not going to accomplish anything. And the gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer had not gotten up. I just want that lesson to be learned going forward. In times of terror like that, to please do something, don’t just stand by and watch.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.” — Winston Churchill”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“Pay attention to everything going on around you. When you put your gun on in the morning, it should be like turning on the ignition key. You go into Condition Yellow. Before you enter a convenience store or a restaurant, assess the situation — don’t walk in blindly. Be aware of everything inside your twenty-one-foot personal safety zone. Watch all 360 degrees around you. Always know how to get out of where you are, whether you are on foot, in a vehicle, or in an office building or mall. Protect your back by sitting with your back to a wall. It was failure to do this that cost Wild Bill Hickok his life. Sit where you can see the exits and the cash register. In a vehicle be sure to use your mirrors. Break conventional thought patterns by ascertaining what you are really seeing. Always keep the edge. Be prepared, have a plan, and do something. “Doing something may be being the best witness you can be.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“2,794 news stories about the incident. However, not one mentioned that the shooting had occurred in a “gun-free zone.” “Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises?” Lott wrote. He said the same thing happened in reporting by the media on the Trolley Square Mall shooting. The concealed-carry law went into effect in Nebraska on January 3, 2007, so it is possible that some of the shoppers or employees might have been armed and able to cut short the gunman’s rampage. It does appear the news media have a deliberate policy of suppressing that very relevant part of the story. Major media folk generally don’t own firearms, don’t like anyone who carries a firearm, and hate to give any credit to an armed citizen for doing anything. The idea that gun-free zones and the people who create them might be partly responsible for many deaths is anathema to them.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“confirmation of the advice of John Benner and others not to give a statement to law enforcement right after the shooting. This is why it has become standard practice not to interview an officer involved in a shooting for a day or two after the event. What is good for the officer should be good for the public.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“When trying to persuade a school board to endorse the program, three is the critical number, said Irvine. “If you get one person going in to the board, he is the one crazy person. He’s easy to ignore. If you get two people going in, well, the crazy guy’s got a buddy, so we can still ignore [them]. But if you get three, that’s a committee. It’s hard to ignore a committee. A committee makes recommendations; you’ve at least got to consider it.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“It’s deeply damaging to portray fit, fully-formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself — and, in a ‘horrible’ world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself or others,” Steyn wrote.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“seventy-six-year-old Professor Liviu Librescu, but he was from a different generation. He sacrificed himself by holding the door while ordering his students to escape through the windows. He understood the responsibilities of leadership — the leader, like the captain of a ship, saves himself last.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“Immediate action taken by personnel who are on-site when the shooting starts is the most effective way to stop the killing.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“victim-resolved incidents result in far fewer fatalities than shooter-resolved incidents. Additionally, police-resolved shootings produce more casualties than victim-resolved shootings.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“first responders are usually not the law-enforcement officers or the paramedics that follow them, but the ordinary citizens who happen to be on the scene at the time”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away

“The most frequent use of a gun in self-defense is when an ordinary citizen feels threatened by a human predator and produces a gun — usually a handgun. The potential robber, rapist, or murderer sees the gun, realizes his victim-selection process needs revision, and takes off faster than a shotgun slug goes through a sheet-rock wall. No one gets hurt. Usually, the incident is not reported to the police, and there is seldom a report of the incident in the local paper or on the local television news — no blood, no story. At the other end of the media-attention scale is when a disturbed individual turns up at a place where many people congregate — a school, a mall, a church, a workplace — and starts shooting, killing and wounding as many as possible. It is these incidents that get national attention across the air-waves, cable television, and newspapers. Screams for more gun control by the country’s professional whiners, who think more laws will solve everything, typically follow. They hate the idea of ordinary citizens carrying concealed handguns for protection, and they hate the people who take responsibility for their own safety.”
― Chris Bird, Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage: When Seconds Count, Police Are Still Minutes Away